Cardboard ticks all the right boxes, says the man with a passion for packaging

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Miles Roberts: under his leadership, DS Smith’s earnings have tripled and its share price has doubledTimes photographer,Paul Rogers

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Mr Roberts is a big admirer of Elizabeth 1

Andrew Clark

Last updated at 12:01AM, August 31 2013

Need a cardboard box? Miles Roberts is your man.The former plasterer from
South London is Britain’s corrugated king, with a brown-paper empire
stretching across 25 European countries.

Although largely unknown to the public, his company, DS Smith, is present in
most homes — it makes boxes for washing powder, wine, Domino’s Pizza and
Danone yoghurt.

Mr Roberts, 49, loves the stuff — he’s the closest you’ll meet to a cardboard
evangelist. “It’s easy to recycle, it’s flexible. Once you have finished
with it, if you throw it in the garden, it’ll disappear in a few weeks,” he
says. “If you throw a